End of summer sees Pegatron upbeat on second-half sales

BACK TO SCHOOL:：The company said student demand would be a driver for sales in the second half, as would the increase in launches of new products

By Helen Ku / Staff reporter

Thu, Jun 20, 2013 - Page 13

Pegatron Corp (和碩), an assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad products, yesterday said it remained optimistic about its sales outlook during the second half of the year, on the back of strong back-to-school demand.

“We expect demand for consumer electronics, communication products and other IT gadgets to stay strong through the fourth quarter of the year,” online news site cnYES.com quoted Pegatron chairman Tung Tsu-hsien (童子賢) as saying yesterday.

“Since there are more new product launches scheduled for the upcoming months than in the first half of the year, Pegatron expects orders to continue growing,” Tung said at a meeting with shareholders in New Taipei City (新北市).

However, Tung declined to comment on widespread rumors that Pegatron began manufacturing between 1 million and 1.5 million mid-end iPhones for Apple this quarter, and only said that there are still many opportunities for players in the PC market.

Pegatron chief executive officer Jason Cheng (程建中) yesterday said the company expects its PC shipments to grow by between 5 percent and 10 percent quarter-on-quarter as predicted at an investors’ conference earlier last month.

Salse of the company’s communication products are expected to remain flat this quarter from last quarter, while those of consumer electronics could drop by between 25 percent and 30 percent sequentially because clients will be entering new product cycles starting next quarter, he added.

“Overall, we remain positive about our PC shipments during the second half of the year,” Cheng said, adding that PCs are expected to account for 55 percent of the company’s annual shipments.

Pegatron currently has a total of 11,000 employees and will continue hiring, though it is not under pressure to expand capacity, he said.